Judge: Suspect's rights violated by former (AZ) sheriff

[kpete]

Source: Arizona Republic

The Apache County Attorney's Office has been stripped of prosecution powers against a defendant in a multiple-murder case because one of its investigators - a former sheriff with a felony record - tried to pressure the jailed defendant into taking a plea deal.

Last year, Apache County Attorney Michael Whiting hired Brian Hounshell as a criminal investigator despite the fact that Hounshell, the former county sheriff, had been convicted of felony theft in a public corruption case. Earlier this year, Hounshell visited the suspect in jail and, without notifying the man's attorney, pressed him to plead guilty or face a possible death penalty.

Superior Court Judge Donna Grims- ley has ruled that Whiting and Hounshell violated the suspect's Sixth Amendment rights and must transfer the case to an outside prosecutor.

The story begins with three homicides: William McCarragher, 72, was slain in 2007; Daniel Achten, 60, and Luis "Ricky" Flores, 16, were killed in separate incidents last year.



Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2010/07/07/20100707arizona-sheriff-violated-suspects-rights.html

[ThoughtCriminal]

1. An Arizona tradition - The Botched 1991 Temple Case

n August of 1991 nine bodies were discovered inside the Wat Promkunaram Buddhist Temple in the desert near Phoenix. The victims, including six Buddhist monks, lay face down in a circle, each shot in the head.

What followed was a story of staggering incompetence, coerced false confessions, and later a conviction now overturned due to coercive interrogations.

http://garylstuart.com/220FalseConfessionsTheTucsonFour.htm
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/nation/federal-appellate-court-says-teens-confession-in-temple-mass-murder-near-phoenix-involuntary-85383262.html

[alp227]

2. Criminal prosecuting a criminal? Bad case right there.

(sigh) Arizona must be having it tough right here. Crooked cops and racist laws.